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Session 9c (Stars of Io)
The party disrupted the defenses of Eclavdra's Fortress and then assaulted the drow queen in her tower. Status *DM: Bryce *Players: **Raymond - Naiveral ***XP: 11,750 **Ryan - Wuelasselin ***XP: 11,750 **Paul - Gnarlimb ***XP: 11,750 **Shelley - Zem ***XP: 11,750 *Date: June 14, 2012 *Location: Ryan's Media Room Summary Mayhem in the Artillery Room Naiv and Tuga distracted the guards on the outer edge of the strong hold as the rest of the party sneaked in and attempts sabotage the antisiege weapons. Zem found the door controls and let Naiv inRK1, locking out a group of guards, but her brash lever flicking had her surrounded by drow munitions workers. Along with help from Gnarl and Wuel, she stabed her way out of the fray. The party set fire to the workshop and advanced up the spiral staircase. Like piñatas, but with spiders. The next floor is where the ballistas and catapults were firing, now with a severely diminished supply of ammo, and the top floor is where the net launchers were. A drow priestess and 4 other soldiers were manning the net launchers when the party struck. As the enemies were whittled down, the priestess would cause them to explode into spidery shrapnelRK2. Finally, the priestess was struck down, and the party began to dismantle the net launchers, while Wuel summoned a fire ball to destroy the catapults on the level below. As they worked, a group of drow workers ran out from the stairwell, prepared to fight, but the party convinced them to finish deconstructing the launchers and barricading the stairwell with the remains in exchange for their lives. The party advanced to the throneroom. Dragon and Drow Showdown The chamber housing Eclavdra had a floor shaped like a simplified spider's web, with walkways arranged in a spoked circle formation. The entire chamber, including the dome above, was composed of a thick spider-silk like material. The Drow heretic wore Io's crown on her brow and carried a vicious tentacle staff. She was guarded of two white-robed shadowblades. Alm, being too large to enter the dome through the door, latched onto the ceiling and began to tear away at the material. As Zem snuck around the room, she discovered the crystal that had once protected Alm's lair behind the throne. Throughout the battle, Eclavdra dealt significant damage with her powerful spells and tentacle staff. In the course of the fight, one of the guards was disarmed, and on the party's encouragement Wuel kicked the weapon into the pit. In desperation, the guard stole Gnarllimb's weapon, which the guard took with him into the pit when Wuel teleported his ass off the walkway. Alm eventually tore through the dome and joined the battle. He promptly swallowed the remaining guard and engaged Eclavdra directly. Seeing the Party starting to wear down, Alm advised them to "get what (they) came for and flee!" Zem took the advice, snatched the crown from the drow's headRK3 and flew away on her dragonfly. Wuel grabbed the unconscious Gnarllimb and attempted to fly across the pit using his Scar of Blue Wings. Unfortunately, he wasn't quite able to make the jump. Nobly throwing his friend to safety, Wuel fell into the pit and was only saved by ordering his dragonfly to catch him after he'd fallen through the pipe. Zem also fled down the pipe and returned to the safety of the troglodyte hold. The remaining party members flew back into the the chamber to try to aid Alm. Eclavdra had jumped onto his back and wrapped her tentacle staff around his neck. In the end, both Eclavdra and Alm fell into the pit, and by the time the party could investigate, the dragon was lodged in the hole at the bottom and thrashing in panic. Of the drow, there was no sign. Taking turns with their remaining dragonflies, the party calmed Alm, healed him some, and fetched some troglodytes and rope. Together they were able to pull the dragon out of the hole. The party returned to the Trog stronghold to recover and celebrate their victory. Commentary * RK1 **Getting stun-locked here was a little frustrating. I understand WHY and HOW it happened but it was still frustrating. ***'DM NOTE:' Sorry. Also, deal with it :P. * RK2 **In this fight I remember asking for more reactive feedback during battle. "How does the priestess react to her spider explosion doing nothing?" I recall asking for similar things over the course of all 3 sessions but that time in particular stands out. I know that as DM you've got a lot to juggle in combat but I'd like it if I didn't have to request those bits of "flavor text"; iirc seething in rage is free action. ***'DM NOTE:' See my note on Pauls comment about details in session A. * RK3 **Had I known that Shelley had a power that lets her steal in combat I would have suggested it when she climbed behind the throne. I know at that point she was asking questions about what she could do from that position. ***'DM NOTE:' Facepalm round 2. I wanted so badly to say "Steal it, steal it!!!" when she was asking about what to do. I thought that with the constant weapon theft one of you would have come up with this idea on your own. I don't like having NPCs tell you what to do, so I was hesitant to have Alm yell at you. **I disagree with Shelley on this fight being less interesting than the Alm fight. More stuff going on and the terrain was used in a more interesting way. Then again I spent most of the Alm fight in a dragon's mouth--so that may color my opinion a bit. *RK General **Writing commentary that relates to your DMing for this session was difficult, Bryce. All three sessions felt well balanced, and as whole they were really good. But very little stood-out. Nothing was outstanding, but nothing was subpar either. Basically writing these comments is easy when there are bits that I particularly liked or disliked. As a whole the sessions were good. Biggest complaint (across all comments from what I can tell) is that you were a little light on descriptive elements. RB: *Having epic NPC fights with some non-epic PC involvement is tricky business. On the one hand, it's really cool seeing these two big players battle it out. On the other, I sort of felt like the battle would have gone this way whether we had been involved or not. **'DM NOTE:' I assure you that it would not have. Even if we set aside the fact that Alm would have died of spellplague if not for you, and the fact that he couldn't get inside the castle on his own, the battle would probably have ended poorly for Alm. Eclavdra was a higher level than him, but had much few HP. If you had not burned her ass for 100 damage right out of the gate, she probably would have killed him. *If you intended us to just snatch the crown and GTFO, Alm should have suggested that at the beginning. "Eclavdra is too powerful for you. If you wish to claim her artifact, take it from her while she is occupied fighting me." **'DM NOTE:' Again, I don't like to have NPCs tell you what to do, I want you to make your own decisions based on what you think is the best course of action. However it seemed like no one was ever considering this, so I threw it out there. *And this is mostly a personal fixation due to me having a dragon fetish, but dragons should speak like dragons, not like humans. Alm did not strike me as being particularly proud or majestic. It's not just the voice, but the manner of speech. Use big, sweeping words and gestures, get up in someone's face if he perceives a lack of proper respect, etc. **'DM NOTE:' again, sorry. This is the weakest part of my DMing and I know it. Ill try to do better but dont get your hopes up. SG: *I agree with the motive needing to be clearer. There was the perfect chance to snatch the circlet and just jump down the hole and onto the back of the dragonfly, but being new to the group, I only had a vague understanding of who Eclavdra was, and since everyone's first inclination was to attack her, I thought we were after her life more than the circlet. If things actually had gone that smoothly, I would have been dropped out of the session fairly early. Also, the totem spear might not have been lost to scary town and Ryan might not have fallen down the hole. However, the struggle to not fall down the hole seemed like a fun challenge (maybe). The fighting seemed to only matter long enough for Zem to steal the crown and Alm to break through the barrier, which, had we all left after that, we wouldn't be present to see how the battle ended between Alm and Eclavdra. So, everyone except for Zem (because she had possession of the circlet,) probably would have gone back and continued the fight anyway. **'DM NOTE:' That is up to you guys to decide your motive. I know you are new, so maybe the other guys should have told you what the situation was. I can't decide motive for the players, and I'm certainly not going to speak for them. I hope you guys have more communication in the future. I'm sure they are just used to everyone knowing what the missions is, they have been searching for this stuff for over a year now, so its easy to forget that some people dont know whats happening. PP: *Busting up the enemy base was fun. You should be warned that if you leave me with in an enemy's room with a fire source I will probably burn the place down when I leave. The battle with the priestess added some needed flavor to the Drow and by extension the Underdark in general. Helping a large army while doing our usual brawling was a nice bit of flavor/variety too. *The final battle was good, but not quite as exciting as the fight with Alm. I think adding a middle set of strands of web to walk in would have made movement and positioning more interesting. Also, a reason for the room to be funnel shaped besides making it dangerous to fight in would have been good. The NPCs powers seemed well balanced to ours. I knew that we wouldn't have been able to take them down without Alm, and I knew that Alm wouldn't have been able to kill them without us (even beyond getting him in there). **'DM NOTE:' A poop shute cameo isn't a good enough reason? It usually try pretty hard to fit exciting combat terrain and reasonable room structure together, but here I felt like crazy drow arcitecture was a good enough reason. Also, I had a middle strand for this room on my plans, but when I started drawing it on the grid, it looked to cramped to fit the air of the queen, so I scrapped it. *I'm a little surprised reading this commentary; I thought we affected the battle quite a bit, and while I didn't know Shelley had a super steal move I still would have fought Eclavdra long enough to see Alm at least get his crystal back (and not die). It would have been a very big waste of time to win him over as an ally and then watch him die a few days later. I will agree with Ryan about Alm seeming a little mundane in his disposition. *Shelley: we knew practically nothing about Eclavdra either, we knew she challenged a god and lived to tell about it, and that she had one of the Stars in the form of a headpiece. You can pick up all relevant details from past session summaries. We try to make them a least a little entertaining to read. *All sessions combined were a great time. We got a lot done and saw some cool stuff. Thanks for putting it all together. About the Underdark in general though: it's not a very pleasant place to be. I always want to get out of there as fast as possible because it is foreboding and usually drab, which does not make me want to explore. Loot